Hedge Funds Are Buying E TRADE Financial Corporation (ETFC)

Is E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC) ready to rally soon? Money managers are taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 7 in recent months.

The company’s director, Robert Lawson, recently purchased shares. As was reported on iStockAnalyst, “the director has purchased shares of the financial services company three previous times during the past two-years, and each time, the price went up immediately afterwards.”

With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the recent action encompassing E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC).

What have hedge funds been doing with E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 42 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 20 percent from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Rob Butts and Josh Clark’s Southpoint Capital Advisors had the largest position in E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC), worth close to $158.4 million, comprising 8.9 percent of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Blue Ridge Capital, led by John Griffin, holding a $154.2 million position; the fund has 1.8 percent of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions comprise Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Columbus Circle Investors, managed by Donald Chiboucis, established the largest position in E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC). Columbus Circle Investors had 82.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital also made a $38.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ETFC positions are Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Spencer M. Waxman’s Shannon River Fund Management.

How are insiders trading E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

E TRADE is held by more hedge funds Inside Monkey tracks than any other investment brokerage stock. The second most widely held stock at the end of Q3 was TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, which 25 funds were long.